A few years ago, Johnny Depp got into legal trouble and that is about all I can tell you about the situation.  The only aspect I can recall is that it involved Amber Heard.  I saw a couple clips of court room proceedings, which seemed bizarre, but otherwise I dismissed the whole affair.  Of the myriad reasons for my lack of interest, towards the top is the fact that I have never been enamored of him as an actor.  Arguably, his most famous role is as Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.  Feel free to check out my thoughts on that series, but to give you a hint, many of them relate to my Catholic distaste for high seas thievery and whatever else goes on in those movies.  To this point, my favorite movie of his is a title difficult for this practicing Catholic to say out loud: From Hell (2001).  Luckily, he plays the good guy, and it is historically based.  Now that I have seen Benny & Joon (1993), I have a new favorite.

Benny & Joon are favorites of each other, if only due to the fact that they are brother and sister.  Benjamin “Benny” Pearl (Aidan Quinn) runs an auto repair shop.  As the older sibling, it is his responsibility to take care of the younger Juniper “Joon” Pearl (Mary Stuart Masterson).  We learn later in a flashback that their parents had died in a car accident.  That tragic event is why Benny has become Joon’s guardian, for trauma has brought on mental instability for her.  Such is her state that she cannot be left at home by herself, meaning that he must hire people he refers to as “housekeepers” to be with her while he is at work.  Most of the time, she contents herself with painting or reading, but upon coming home from the shop early in the film, he is confronted by an angry Mrs. Smail (Eileen Ryan), the current housekeeper.  As another object is hurled at her, Mrs. Smail informs Benny that she will not be returning.  Thus, he must take Joon with him during his weekly poker night.  The next day, he visits Dr. Garvey (C. C. H. Pounder), the mental health professional with whom the Pearls have been consulting for some years.  Dr. Garvey’s recommendation is to put Joon in a facility so that he can move on with his life, but, for the moment, he is adamant that her place is with him.  Thus, the search for a new housekeep commences, but all the possible candidates, even from Dr. Garvey, have already been tried or are unavailable.  When time comes again for Benny to play cards with his friend, Joon goes ahead for him and begins wagering.  This group has an idiosyncratic method of betting, revolving around items with value only apparent to them.  Though Joon has a flush, she is beaten by Mike’s (Joe Grifasi) full house.  What I am about to say sounds worse than how it turns out in the film, but he had put his cousin Sam (Johnny Depp) into the pot.  Because Joon lost, Sam now has to live with our title siblings.  Perhaps we should grant Mike some Christian charity.  Sam is unique, though not clinically so like Joon.  In addition to being unable to read or write, he lives his life like Buster Keaton, even dressing like silent film star.  I can imagine that being a little difficult to handle.  When Benny raises objections, Mike cites how they honor the bets they make.  Besides, there is something about Sam that intrigues Joon, so Benny agrees to the situation for the moment.  In the morning before leaving for the garage, Benny gives Sam some instructions on how to handle Joon’s temperament, the gist of which is to not let anything bad happen to her.  As she goes about her precious routine, she starts to notice Sam’s quirkiness as he cleans the house.  Though there is an objection to his loud music, he promptly turns it down.  Upon returning home, she is ready to announce that she would like him to stay.  Joon and Sam getting along offers a measure of stability, and when they bring home Ruthie (Julianne Moore) to have dinner with them, Benny eventually works up the courage to ask Ruthie to a further date.  Their subsequent evening goes well until Benny is dropping off Ruthie.  She invites him inside, but he turns her down, saying that his life is complicated.  She claims that she had just been offering a drink, but the hurt she feels indicates that she feels like he is saying that there is no room for her in his busy schedule.  As for Joon and Sam, a romance blossoms between them.  After spending an afternoon in the park, Joon and Sam go home together while Benny takes a walk on his own.  Benny had been stunned by the virtuosity of Sam’s impromptu public performance, furthering his Keaton persona.  Meanwhile, Joon and Sam take their relationship to the next level, though she is not ready to admit it to her brother when he returns.  Yet, as the three of them are having breakfast, Benny is gushing about how he can get Sam auditions in front of talent scouts.  Feeling that Benny is about to take something else away from her, she and Sam admit they have feelings for each other.  Benny immediately throws Sam out of the house, and picks this moment to tell Joon that she is going to live in a group home.  Later, feeling remorseful, Benny goes out to get Joon some tapioca pudding.  While he is away, Sam visits and he and Joon decide to run away together.  Unfortunately, while on the buss she has a manic episode that ends with the police and an ambulance being called.  When Joon gets to the institution, she says she does not want to see Benny.  Instead, Benny turns to Sam, and together they sneak into the ward where Joon is staying.  With Dr. Garvey’s approval, Benny offers Joon her freedom, with Sam swinging outside the window, giving his support.  We end with Benny dropping off flowers for Ruthie, but also for Joon, who is living in the same building.

The final scene in Benny & Joon has Benny leaving the flowers at Joon’s door instead of interacting because she is engrossed in making grilled cheese sandwiches with Sam.  It is an important step for Benny, and pays off a comment Sam makes to the older brother when Joon first goes into the hospital.  At first, Benny blames Sam for everything, calling the Keaton wannabe all sorts of awful things.  To Sam’s credit, he does not respond in kind to the Benny’s ravings.  Instead, Sam points out the obvious: that Benny is scared.  It is suggested that part of the reason Joon has her episodes is because she feels like Benny is trying to control her life.  To this point, Benny would see it as him simply loving his sister.  There is truth is this stance in a Christian sense.  Divine love is about seeking what is best for the other.  However, what he is unable to grasp is that his guardianship is more for himself than her, and losing control of it is scary.  Not even able to trust her to professional care, he repeatedly says things like he is the one who is best able to look after her, and that he would not know what he would do if something happened to her.  In this sense, it is more about him than her.  Put a different way, he is trying to do more than what God would ask any of us to do for another person, no matter their relation to us.  Please note that I am speaking in broad terms.  God wants us to love one another, plain and simple, but the form that takes depends on your individual discernment of the situation.  Discernment is the key, and it involves communication.  Just like we need to be open to what God is calling us to do with any given relationship, we need to do the same for those we love.  If something we offer is not what they want, and it does not involve some kind of self-harm, then we need to take that person’s feelings into consideration.  That is something Benny was not doing, but God does for us every time.

What we should also do for somebody like Joon in Benny & Joon is treat them like human beings.  This is another lesson from the film.  Instead, we should all be a little more like Sam, as strange as that might seem.  I am sure he was shocked by Joon’s behavior on the bus, as anyone would be, but he continued to see her as the child of God that she is.  He is also willing to sacrifice himself as they are sneaking into her ward so that Benny can have some time with his sister.  For these reasons, I recommend this, my new favorite Johnny Depp movie.